Life is Short

On Wednesday, Kyle and I attended the funeral of my Uncle Paul Petty. It was definitely a sad, but sweet ceremony. Paul loved motor cycles so my mom had arranged for all of his friends to ride their bikes in before the service began. My mom's cousins Walter shared stories of my uncle's life, and my great uncle shared out of Psalm 23. Kyle and I spent most of the afternoon with my family before we had to drive back to Oxford. We stopped in Jackson for dinner, and our conversation at dinner quickly turned to how life is so short. This was Kyle's second funeral to attend in a week, and he said, "after sitting through both services I cannot think of any reason why I would not give my life to missions." It really made me begin to think about the brevity of life. I have been reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan and he discusses this very matter in Chapter 2. Francis Chan said, "On the average day, we live caught up  in ourselves. On the average day, we don't consider God very much. On the average day, we forget that life truly is a vapor." James 4:14 says, "For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." But even after I read this verse, I quickly forget that I could vanish today. Frederick Buechner wrote, "Intellectually we all know that we will die, but we do not really know it in the sense that the knowledge becomes a part of us. We do not really know it in the sense of living as though it were true. On the contrary, we tend to live as though our lives would go on forever." This really puts the brevity of live into perspective. Chan wrote, "Throughout time, somewhere between forty-five billion and one hundred twenty-give billion people have lived on this earth. That's 125,000,000,000. In about fifty years (give or take a couple of decades) no one will remember you. Everyone you know will be dead. Certainly no one will care what job you had, what car you drove, what school you attended, or what clothes you wore. This can be terrifying or reassuring, or maybe a mix of both." Wow! That will make you stop and think. This is why Kyle and I have dedicated our lives to sharing the gospel with college students. We truly never know when God is going to take our life, and we need to be ready. This is why we tell others about Jesus. We really just need to get over ourselves and realize that "life is all about God and not about me at all." We need to realize that our purpose in being here is to know Him and to make Him known to others. Chan said, "The point of your life is to point to Him. Whatever you are doing, God wants to be glorified, because this whole thing is His. It is His movie, His world, and His gift." We all know that we will die, but we have to believe it enough that it changes how we live. It ought to make us want to give our lives for the glory of the Lord and to serve as mightily as we can while we are here. Chan closed the chapter with this: "Friends, we need to stop living selfish lies, forgetful of our God. Our lives here are short, often unexpectedly so, and we can all stand to be reminded of it from time to time. That's why I wrote this chapter, to help us remember that in the movie of life, nothing matters except our King and God. Don't let yourself forget. Soak it in and keep remembering that it is true. He is everything." I hope this serves as a reminder to you as much as it has for me. Life is truly short, so live for His glory. 

If you would like to read more about this topic, click here (my sister's blog).